Nor’easter takes toll on beaches

Ok, many of us love the beach. Some of us have enough money to live directly on the beach. But if we do, we have to respect Mother Nature and accept the fact that One Day…

My friend, Billy Mack explains what took place:

“Some places the dunes have eroded to the point that some old foundations are exposed,” said William Mack, a coastal geologist with First Coastal, a coastal development consulting firm in Westhampton. “It was an intense storm. It was a massive amount of wind feeding that massive low just offshore. That generated these extreme wave heights through at least four or five tide cycles.”

Mr. Mack said erosion was focused on specific weak spots, where “erosion waves” have kept the sand barriers from building up. Erosion waves are areas where gaps in offshore sandbars allow larger waves to reach the shoreline. Resulting riptides carry sand away from the beach, accelerating erosion. The erosion hot-spots tend to migrate to the west over many years.”